Episodes series 5

[Blue Jam]

I had no idea a fifth series had been commissioned until I saw it pop up on iPlayer this week- and two episodes in as well:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01hpdsk

It feels like a long time since series 4: Pucks! is dead. Matt LeBlanc is now hosting The Box, a tasteless and exploitative but hugely successful gameshow. Carol is no longer the girlfriend and second-in-command of new network boss/paranoid mentalist Helen Basch and is now an unemployed stoner- and single, now she no longer has a boss to sleep with. As a punishment for Beverley's (wholly imagined) affair with Carol, Beverley and Sean are now being forced to co-write their new series with Jonathan, their former assistant who is now more successful than them (and very smug and irritating about the fact).

I wasn't sure about the big changes at first but I don't miss Pucks! and I am enjoying the stuff around the horrible gameshow, especially the petty battle of wits/sleaze between Matt and Merc Lapidis. I was hoping the hateful Jonathan wouldn't be too unbearable but it seems the rest of the writing team hate him as much as Bev and Sean (though they may be too frightened to admit it) and I think he may be heading for a comeuppance. I hope Helen gets hers too, though she hasn't shown her true psycho colours just yet. The best thing is the fact that it's still utterly filthy, with plenty of room for Matt and his sleazy escapades.

Some big changes but I think a series based around a failing show-within-a-show had to move on at some point...

[St_Eddie]

I didn't bother with the last series because up until that point, the show had always felt so bland; enjoyable enough but ultimately disposable and forgettable.  I've given the show another chance with series 5 and it's a big improvement on my memories of series 1-3.  It's still not amazing or anything and certainly not anything that I can see myself re-watching, so in that respect, still disposable but I'm much more invested in the current series for whatever reason.

Perhaps the writing is sharper and more engaging, or maybe because I put the show on hiatus for a series, coming back to it now has helped to make me less apathetic towards it.  Either way, it's a decent enough avenue for escaping the crushing despair of life for 30 minutes a week.

[Blue Jam]

I've just remembered the various reactions to Matt's live-streamed wanking incident- I will never stop finding Myra's vocal fry amusing. Hearing her growl of disgust at the footage was almost as funny as her growling during and after she gave birth in series 4:

https://youtu.be/ZaxFhoyZU04

[Small Man Big Horse]

There was some discussion of the final season here - https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,26786.150.html - but it does deserve it's own thread and I know Neil prefers it this way. I quite enjoyed the show for what it was, it was never perfect but they had a lot of likeable characters and some pretty funny moments. And like Blue Jam says, Myra's various noises are always great stuff.

[Blue Jam]

Yeah, I saw that and considered bumping it but thought Neil would prefer me not to bump a seven-year-old thread- so is this definitely the final season then? I would have thought the new direction, with the end of Pucks! and the start of Matt's new career as a gameshow host would have breathed a bit more life into it. The Opposite of Us is doomed to fail though, isn't it?

[Blue Jam]

Also am I reading too much into this or was Matt's increased status and success despite/because of the wanking incident meant to be a comment on Weinstein/#MeToo etc and how a lot of people claiming that accusations ruin lives haven't noticed that lots of men haven't been hindered by their sleazy pasts at all- ie, Donald Trump? Or was it before all that? In any case it makes for interesting viewing post-Weinstein.

Has any other sitcom done a "sleazy but oddly charming" character this well? The only other one I can think of right now is Tony from Men Behaving Badly.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Yeah, I saw that and considered bumping it but thought Neil would prefer me not to bump a seven-year-old thread- so is this definitely the final season then? I would have thought the new direction, with the end of Pucks! and the start of Matt's new career as a gameshow host would have breathed a bit more life into it. The Opposite of Us is doomed to fail though, isn't it?

Oh you definitely did the right thing. And without giving too much away, the ending is a pretty definite one (which for the record I found satisfying) and they've said it's all over now.

Also am I reading too much into this or was Matt's increased status and success despite/because of the wanking incident meant to be a comment on Weinstein/#MeToo etc and how a lot of people claiming that accusations ruin lives haven't noticed that lots of men haven't been hindered by their sleazy pasts at all- ie, Donald Trump? Or was it before all that? In any case it makes for interesting viewing post-Weinstein.

I think it was written before the Weinstein / #MeToo situation, as this season aired in the US in August 2017, and must have been in production for a good few months beforehand.

Has any other sitcom done a "sleazy but oddly charming" character this well? The only other one I can think of right now is Tony from Men Behaving Badly.

GoB from Arrested Development?

[BritishHobo]

I've been wary of going into that other thread because I didn't want it spoiled. It says everything about my relationship with this show though that despite it all having been available online for like a year, I've not bothered with it until it's popped up on iPlayer and I've thought 'ugh, better watch that'.

Since season one I've been wanting to love this show, finding bits that work, mostly being baffled at what it's trying to do. Watching live, not really enjoying it, forgetting it's on, scrambling to catch up at the end of seasons. Then always eager again next time, hoping it will make sense at last. I feel like the least most dedicated fan ever. I'm always there for the show, but eventually, and not with much interest.

Watched episode 1. Alright. I really love the whole daft Box show, it's really fun to watch. The sitcom writing stuff though, feels a bit baffled and unsure, as it always seems to on this show. Just not sure of the aim.

[BeardFaceMan]

Weird show, this. I didn't find it compelling enough as a drama, didnt find it funny enough to be a comedy, and i knew as I was watching it that I would never rewatch a single episode and yet I couldnt help but watch the whole thing. I call it 'Californication Syndrome'.

[BritishHobo]

Nailed it. What is the show trying to be? Don't know. Why am I still watching? Don't know.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Nailed it. What is the show trying to be? Don't know. Why am I still watching? Tamsin Greig.

Fixed that last bit for you, etc. Not a sex thing for once either, she just puts in a great comedic performance.

[Blue Jam]

Stephen Mangan's "dead acting" in the first episode cracked me up. It was just an amusingly gormless rictus grin.

[Blinder Data]

I've only seen bits and bobs of this show. The problem I have with it is the lack of music. It's weird to be in a situation to want cheesy sitcom-style stings but some of the scenes feel so lifeless and empty. That scene with LeBlanc and the women sexing through the glass just felt creepy when done in utter silence.

I am amazed this has run to five series. It's really not that funny nor dramatic enough nor are any of the characters that likeable/deep. Who are this show's fans? Do they exist? I would love to meet one.

[remedial_gash]

Forgot that series 5 even existed, so caught up on the two on iplayer at 6a.m.

Really quite like it, but it's got some ethereal weirdness to it - it seems genuinely inter-continental, and not in a good or bad way.

In the credits it mentions an L.A. unit, and you think oh, Andrea Savage in a scene must be L.A. but she's surrounded by brits playing Americans. I guess Joey lives here for a few months a year while doing Top Gear, and Michael Brandon has been in the UK since the early eighties and in Italy before that. There also seemed to be some shoddy green-screen work when whatserface opened her door to Tamsin Grieg.

So where was it filmed?

[St_Eddie]

So where was it filmed?

In my back garden.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Forgot that series 5 even existed, so caught up on the two on iplayer at 6a.m.

Really quite like it, but it's got some ethereal weirdness to it - it seems genuinely inter-continental, and not in a good or bad way.

In the credits it mentions an L.A. unit, and you think oh, Andrea Savage in a scene must be L.A. but she's surrounded by brits playing Americans. I guess Joey lives here for a few months a year while doing Top Gear, and Michael Brandon has been in the UK since the early eighties and in Italy before that. There also seemed to be some shoddy green-screen work when whatserface opened her door to Tamsin Grieg.

So where was it filmed?

From what I've read it's mostly shot in the UK with the occasional jaunt to the US. From wikipedia:

Although the majority of the show was set in Los Angeles, it was mainly filmed in the UK, including the actual 103-room £70 million (2006 construction cost) mansion Updown Court standing in as the house of Sean and Beverly Lincoln, with inserts shot on location in LA.[10]

[remedial_gash]

Yeah sorry could have looked it up, and obviously in earlier seasons they had scenes of them running up sandy looking hills overlooking LA, just some of the vistas in the backgrounds of offices look very green-screened due to how static they look.

[Mister Six]

Yeah sorry could have looked it up, and obviously in earlier seasons they had scenes of them running up sandy looking hills overlooking LA, just some of the vistas in the backgrounds of offices look very green-screened due to how static they look.

Someone still has to film/photograph those vistas.

[Virgo76]

I don't really like it. I've never liked it much. It seems lazy.
I've watched it from the start though and will stay with it to the end. There's something about it.

What was the bit with her killing Stephen Mangan at the start of episode 1 all about? Did it happen or not? Was it a dream? How did he survive?

[Bobtoo]

It was a dream. Normally when something terrible happens in a dream it's a relief when you wake up. The joke/point here was that she hated being on that writing team so much that she was disappointed to realise she hadn't murdered her husband after all.

[Virgo76]

Thanks!

[Blue Jam]

I'm pretty sure it's mostly filmed in the UK...

GoB from Arrested Development?

Oooh, good one... and BoJack Horseman is also an oddly sympathetic sleazebag. Getting closer to the topic, Steven Mangan does "sleazy but lovable" well as Guy Secretan in Green Wing. Maybe the key to doing such characters well is in the casting rather than the writing...

As for why people like/don't like the show- I like it because it manages to be nicely undemanding even though the scripts are pretty dense and it never feels dumbed down, most of the characters are horrible but it's not at all depressing, and I particularly like the way the humour is often sick but without really being dark or edgy- that seems quite hard to pull off. Also I find the plots compelling and the whole thing zips along at a good pace. And it's utterly filthy.

[neveragain]

You took the words right out of my head.